I agree that there was never a golden age, but the original question that kicked this thread off was whether an EFL teacher could earn a decent living in London. The answer seems to be "Only if you moonlight as a rent boy for foreign billionaires."

Being from London myself I have to say it is quite expensive to live here and on a TEFL wage it can be worse! So my advise is, if you want to stay in London ,which can be a cool city in some places (eg Camden, Clapham, Kensington and Chelsea, Soho....), then get a "normal" job i.e. working in an office etc etc etc.

Where else could you see the London Symphony Orchestra performing a new score accompanying A Throw of Dice in the open air for free one week followed by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic for a fiver each the next and the Boston Symphony Orchestra for a fiver the week after?

Whatever you're earning, you can still have a great time in London. I've lived there on two occasions with not much money, and found loads to do which cost little or nothing. I recommend the following activities: walk, cycle, visit parks and museums (many are free), people watch, meet people, go jogging, and find out what you're entitled to if on a low income. A year or two living in London is an experience worth having, even if hard up financially. Then move on.

I work for a school in London that offers most of it's teachers 'full-time' contracts of 30 hours per week, and brand- new teachers get £10 per hour - up to £13 if you have experience. And unlike some schools, you get paid for the full hour, they don't subtract the 10 minute breaks from your pay. It doesn't pay enough for you to live alone or in a central area, but if you share with flatmates and/or live a little further out, you can definitely live in London. The museums are free, and Sam Smith's pubs have cheap beer, and grocery prices aren't too bad. London is VERY expensive, though, and you won't be able to afford a lot of luxuries.

Has anyone ever managed to top up their meagre income in teaching small groups or individuals privately?

I'm sure I've seen mention in some threads. I used to do a little private work on the south coast and as I was fairly inexperienced only got £25 an hour: as good as my rate at FE college but with less bureaucracy and the ability to offset my mileage costs against tax.

I'm sure in London you could do better given decent marketing and a few useful contacts.

Has anyone ever managed to top up their meagre income in teaching small groups or individuals privately?

I'm sure I've seen mention in some threads. I used to do a little private work on the south coast and as I was fairly inexperienced only got £25 an hour: as good as my rate at FE college but with less bureaucracy and the ability to offset my mileage costs against tax.

I'm sure in London you could do better given decent marketing and a few useful contacts.

Thanks for that SueH , It;s what I have been looking for. Allthough Britain has been used and used and abused by Brititish employers. I really do feel that private teaching is the way forward.

What others don't realise is that Britain within is the biggest demand in teaching EFL or ESOL compared to the rest of world. Yes teaching English to foreighners or those of a second language are thoselearning as a second language is right here in Britain. That is where it is, and that's a fact , and our government has already recognised this! It's a fact!

But the problerm is that we are underpaid! What can we do about it?

Hopefully we can get together somehow and set up some form of association for private tutors. It would be a non profitablle association. it woulld be simply us getting together and forming a website and encourouraging our services throughout the world. It's time time to stop being used and used and used and abused, sometime s by foreign companies who are not really British, sometimes not even American. It's time to make a move. Who's in.

British regulations are difficult. but if we could make an agency of small tutors wishing to teach small groups in a better way, we can avoid these strict rgulations. Once you grow and start employing etc you start getting involved with a crazy redtape setup. Set by a socialist government no doubt.

This is what I can't understand, techers in Britain, , British teachers who are annoyed they are not getting the salaries they deserve, who not involved in th this crazy idea that they are not real teachers. For goodness sake for many of us we are capable of teching those who don't know English whatsoever into learning English to a very high standard, is tha not a fantastic skill? For goodnees sake, it is greater than teaching native english children or teenagers. It's a much greater skill!

Why are we so so underrated if if we have the cabability of teaching those who can't speak English. Yet those wo are only capable English to those who already know English.

For goodnees sake!! I could read at the age of three, before I went to school. I loved reading Grimms Fairy tales, Geography of the World, animal life etc before I even went to school. Scool on early years to me was boring, as I already knew. Same as English, much as what we were taught, many of us already knew it. But teaching is a whole different thing. We bring something new to them.

Sorry!But Summer activity schools are shit, inregards to teaching. I've been there and taught. The only use it might have is the immersion of students of different nationalities speaking togethether. Unfortunutely many of them stick together in their and don't learn anything, and nobody attempts to pursuade it otherwise. Sorry that;s what I have , although ther are rare exceptions.

French stick to French, Italian stick to Italian, that's the way they. And I suppose if it was Brits, Brits would stick with Brits. Yes I know their parents would want it differently, but that's not the way it can be.

How canwe change that attitude, not by these massive schools, but by be being smaller and anilising the prob;ems.

Massive schools are out, and those stupid controls by the British government should be stopped. Redtape crap is what I say!

Judging by the length and the typos that was the late night vodka talking, but I don't think there's much I'd radically disagree with you.

There's been a bit in the mainstream press about visa mills recently and regulation would help those, but such schools would never be good payers.
Pre-sessional work pays well but is short term. No doubt about the demand though, both ESOL and EFL.

Incidentally my student I taught English at £25 an hour thought I was good value although the company was paying. But individual students I came across didn't have enough money for me to make it worthwhile. I did think of approaching some of the local farmers to teach their gangs of foreign pickers but never got round to it.